CONWAY — Destinee Rogers and Nakeia Guiden each posted season-high scoring totals, and Megan Herbert recorded her 1,000th career rebound as the Sugar Bears defeated Texas State 81-75 on Wednesday to remain perfect inside the Farris Center this season.
The Sugar Bears, who have the Southland's best record at 9-1 in the league and 19-4 overall, keep their home record unblemished this season at 13-0 and extend their winning streak to eight games – the longest conference winning streak they've had since joining the Southland.
"I'm happy to get out of here with a win," said UCA head coach Matt Daniel. "I thought our focus was good for the first 38 minutes. But you can't back off. The last two games, that's when we've made our push. Tonight we relaxed, and we're fortunate to hang on for the win. Hats off to Texas State for battling."
UCA led Texas State (13-9, 5-4) nearly the entire way, and held an 11-point lead with under two minutes to go but had to fight to hang on at the end. The Bobcats began fouling to send the Sugar Bears to the free throw line just under the two-minute mark, and between seven missed free throws down the stretch by UCA and a handful of scores by Texas State, the Bobcats trailed just two with 24 seconds left.
After Micah Rice made one of two free throw attempts to give UCA a 78-75 lead with 15 seconds to go, the Sugar Bears caught the break they needed when Westin Taylor drew a charge against Texas State's Diamond Ford for her fourth foul. Ford immediately picked up her fifth when she was hit with a technical following the charge call.
Herbert, who had 17 points and 15 rebounds for her 59th career double-double and fourth in a row, hit one of two from the line to give UCA a four-point lead. Rogers then followed with two free throws with seven seconds left to put the Sugar Bears ahead six, and the Bobcats would fail to get off another shot before time expired.
With her 15 rebounds, Herbert becomes just the fourth player in school history to reach both 1,500 career points and 1,000 rebounds. Rogers had 20 of her season-high 27 in the second half, hitting three 3-pointers in a row early in the period and finishing 6-for-10 from beyond the arc. It was one off her career high of 28 set at Lamar during her freshman season. Guiden had 19, with 13 coming in the first half. Desiree' Rogers had nine points and nine rebounds.
The Bobcats were paced by 30 points from Ford, the league's leading scorer. Ezeh had 22 and Demi Clinch had 15.
The Sugar Bears outrebounded the Bobcats 40-30, but shot 43.1 percent to 47.5 percent for Texas State. In the second half, Texas State was 54.2 percent from the field while the Sugar Bears were just 32.1 percent. Five of the Sugar Bears' nine second-half field goals came from 3-point range as they hit 50 percent from outside. For the game they were 37.5 percent while limiting the Bobcats to just 23.5 percent from 3-point range.
The Sugar Bears travel to Lake Charles, La. to take on McNeese State on Saturday.
